Conference Explores Ways to Value Resources, Improve the Environment and Put a Check into Producers' Pockets

From USDA:

Posted by Kari Cohen, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on December 15, 2014 at 11:00 AM

U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell makes welcoming remarks at the"A Community on Ecosystem Services (ACES)" conference in Crystal City, VA. USDA Photo by Bob Nichols.

What is the monetary value of a supply of clean water?  Or the value of clean air or having places available to hike and fish?

For decades we have taken these resources for granted, or at least we have not put a monetary value on their benefits. That’s changing.  Participants from 30 nations met this week at the ACES: A Community on Ecosystem Services; Linking Science, Practice and Decision Making conference to talk about just how we can value these benefits and include that in our decision-making and planning.  As the conference kicked off, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tidwell talked about the need to quantify the benefits of public lands, building consensus and support for a multi-generational outlook, moving away from short term objectives and toward “sustaining the health and diversity of our forests and grasslands.”

Participants included a number of other federal officials, including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, USDA Undersecretary Robert Bonnie, and Jay Jensen of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell gives the keynote address for the, “Ecosystem Services and Public Policy: Status, Opportunities and Challenges” session. USDA Photo by Bob Nichols.

In her keynote address, Secretary Jewell spoke about the importance American ecosystems for the services they provide, highlighting three things:

• We can always do a better job managing our lands;
• We need to find the political will to do what needs to be done;
• We must keep developing the science and tools to support better land management.

Jensen, CEQ’s Associate Director for Land and Water Ecosystems, and a former USDA Deputy Undersecretary, talked about how ecosystem services are considered by Federal policy makers.  What’s needed, he said, are local opinion leaders to help educate the public why it is important to consider and value ecosystem services in environmental decision-making.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) Under Secretary Robert Bonnie speaks during the “Ecosystem Services and Public Policy: Status, Opportunities and Challenges” session. USDA Photo by Bob Nichols.

Undersecretary Bonnie highlighted how the quantification and consideration of ecosystem services is changing the way USDA agencies carry out their conservation missions.  He highlighted recent USDA successes in supporting ecosystem markets efforts for water quality and greenhouse gases.  Bonnie also noted USDA’s development of tools, such as COMET-Farm, that can help land managers understand how their actions may impact ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration or nutrient uptake.

Dr. Ann Bartuska, Deputy Under Secretary at USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics said that the challenge now is understanding what services are provided by public and private lands, valuing those services in the market, and providing economic certainty to build support for long term policy objectives.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Research Education and Economics (REE) Deputy Under Secretary Ann Bartuska was a panel member on the, “Ecosystem Services: Key Advances and Challenges in Linking Science, Practice and Decision Making” panel. USDA Photo by Bob Nichols.

Ensuring that there are markets and economic certainty for owners of private lands is equally important.  Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Jason Weller shared with participants how his agency provides the tools to encourage ranchers and farmers to improve the environment by limiting runoff, planting cover crops and providing technical assistance.  Outcomes from those efforts can be measured and valued in a marketplace. While NRCS doesn’t administer markets, through programs like Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG), it provides funding and technical support help entities develop environmental markets for water quality, carbon, and wildlife habitat.   For example, just last month USDA announced that a CIG  grant helped initiate a partnership that is improving the environment, creating a market for carbon credits generated on private lands. Chevrolet, a division of General Motors, recently purchased almost 40,000 carbon dioxide reduction tons generated on working ranch grasslands in the Prairie Pothole region of North Dakota.

Sharing successes and hearing from local leaders will be critical to expanding potential markets. Under Secretary Bonnie said that we can create demand by showing producers how “real, measurable environmental benefits” can also improve their bottom line. “We need to ramp up demand,” said Bonnie. We’ve made tremendous progress on forest conservation measures, but we need every tool on the table as we deal with climate change.”  USDA is very committed to the concept of environmental markets:  Markets that work “for the environment but also for land owners and private foresters.”

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Jason Weller makes a presentation at a Town Hall Meeting. USDA Photo by Bob Nichols.

Conservation Grant Helps Rice Growers Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Ciji Taylor, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on April 2, 2014 at 1:00 PM

A California farmer harvests his rice field. Photo by Robert Parkhurst, Environmental Defense Fund (used with permission).

Note: Three projects funded by a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant were recently honored by the American Carbon Registry for innovative approaches to environmental stewardship. The winners included Ducks Unlimited, Delta Institute and Terra Global Capital. Ducks Unlimited’s work aimed to generate a carbon credit system for North Dakota landowners, which not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also restores wetlands and grasslands that are crucial to waterfowl. Delta Institute is working with farmers to reduce use of nitrogen – one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, Terra Global Capital and many others partners are working on a credit system for rice growers in California and the Midsouth. The below post provides more information on this project.

USDA is helping to provide rice growers in California and the Midsouth with new opportunities to voluntarily execute conservation practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while cultivating a new income stream.

The California and Midsouth rice projects are funded by a Conservation Innovation Grant from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is providing more than $1 million to help identify and develop new conservation methods. The grant also leverages new and emerging ecosystem income for landowners while addressing climate change.

Methane and nitrous oxide are potent greenhouse gases that are given off when rice fields are cultivated and fertilized. Precise water management and conservation-based nitrogen management can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maximizing water-use nitrogen fertilizer efficiency.

Arkansas and California are the two largest rice growing states in the country, providing them with an opportunity to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions while maintaining yields.

This carbon offsets project was under development for many years and is the first of its kind from U.S. rice production. Partners include the Environmental Defense Fund, The American Carbon Registry, Terra Global Capital, California Rice Commission and the White River Irrigation District. NRCS has provided grant funding and technical support for the project.

By employing voluntary management practices, such as dry seeding, precise water management and nutrient management, farmers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate carbon offset credits. These rice carbon offset credits are expected to be available to the California Air Resources Board’s regulatory compliance market later this year.

In order to quantify carbon offsets, the partners developed the “Voluntary Emissions Reductions in Rice Management Systems” quantification methodology that was recently approved by the American Carbon Registry. This will allow producers to quantify and validate their carbon reductions. The credits are then verified by a third party to ensure the integrity of the carbon credits.  Once the carbon credits are verified and approved for sale, the credits can be sold into the carbon market.

The carbon credits generated by farmers are also expected to be the first agricultural credits exchanged in the California regulatory market.   The adoption of the first crop-based agriculture offset methodology also opens the door for other agricultural opportunities.  California’s regulatory market is seen by many people as a gold standard throughout the world.  Since credits can be sold into California’s market from anywhere in the country, this project has a broad scope of rice producers that include Arkansas, Louisiana and other Midsouth states that grow rice.

The conservation techniques applied to reduce greenhouse gas emission can also help farmers manage water more efficiently, manage nitrogen fertilizer more efficiently and maintain yields while maintaining aquatic wildlife habitat.